The Havens of Fetteresso Parish
Bob Mathewson (A&NESFHS)

 (2) Skaterow

Skateraw is the most Northerly fishing village of Fetteresso Parish situated in the estate of Elsick at the mouth of the Elsick burn. 
 
In the Fetteresso OPR's the name of Sketraw does not appear until the 1630's when in 1633 Alex'r Chrystie in Skaitraw of Elsik had a son called Alex'r before that the location appears to be simply referred to as Elsik, but by the eighteenth century the village is known as Skaitraw or Sketraw.

Like the fishermen of Cowie and Muchalls they were of the Episcopalian denomination, and were regular attendars of St. Ternans church at Muchalls. They even took their children to be baptized to the Tolbooth at Stonehaven when their Minister the Rev. Troup was imprisoned there in the winter of 1748-49. The fishermen of Sketraw contributed generously to the fund for the building of Muchalls Episcopalian Chapel giving £23 5/6 almost a tenth of the total subscriptions of £255 13/3. Being traditionalist these fisher folk did not only celebrate Christmas on 25th December but also continued to remember ' Aul Eel', the 5th January, right into the twentieth century. I remember when visiting my grandmother Betty Lees, hanging up my stocking for a second visit from Santa.
  
As with other similar fishing villages migration from one village to another took place from time to time, although women married out with their home village more often than men, who would normally move only if all the boats in their village were fully crewed. One such family was that of Alexander Taylor who had moved from Muchalls to Skateraw with his mother in the 1760's after his father had been lost at sea, who ultimately married Mary Brodie and raised his family in Sketraw before moving to Cowie in 1806 at the age of 53. Another migration was when Alexander Lees son of John moved from Cowie to Skateraw in 1798 marrying Jean Stephen there, and a hundred years later in the 1881 census there were thirteen families with the name of Lees in Skateraw all descendants of Alexander Lees and Jean Stephen.  James Masson son of Alexander Masson and Janet Christie moved from Sketraw to Cowie about 1810 marrying a local girl Mary Watt. James died in 1835 his wife dying in 1824 and Isabella his unmarried sister moved to Cowie to be housekeeper to his children. 
  
There does not appear to have been any migration from Skateraw to Stonehaven between 1841 and 1851, but fishermen were already spending some of their time catching herring which meant that the fishermen fished out of other ports such as Peterhead ,  Fraserburgh and Stonehaven. Between 1826 and 1830 extensive improvements to Stonehaven harbour took place and by about the 1840's herring fishing was being conducted from Stonehaven, although the fishermen still maintained their family in Skateraw and other Seatowns. About 1860 Andrew Christie with his family and along with his Father and Mother, Peter Christie and Margaret moved from Skateraw to 1 Love Lane Stonehaven. According to the 1851 census there were 46 fishermen living in Skateraw and in 1881 census there were 58 fishermen. Between 1881 and 1891 six families named Lees and William and Margaret Christie moved to Stonehaven probably to be nearer the center of the herring industry, becoming neighbours with fishermen from Findon, Portlethen, Downies, Stranathra, Cowie, Stonehaven, Crawton and Bervie. The families of Andrew Masson, John Brodie, James Brodie, Peter Lees, William Christie and the remaining family of the deceased Andrew Christie moved to Torry around about 1889, some carried on being whitefishermen whilst others became fishcurers. By 1898 there were only six boats registered at Skateraw and by the 1950's almost all fishing had ceased there as well as from the other havens in Fetteresso.
  
Earlier I mentioned that some crews were made up of fathers brothers and sons the following anecdote illustrates how devastating this could be. On the 21st April 1880 a sudden gale blew up which caused havoc to the fishermen of the havens between Aberdeen and Stonehaven. When the boats were about twenty miles off-shore a gale blew up which cost the lives of nineteen whitefishermen. The boats that were lost were the "Brothers" from Skateraw, the "Twilight" from the Downies, the "Isabella" from the Downies and the "Alexander Duthie" from Footdee. The "Brothers" crew were four brothers and two of their sons namely William Christie Sen., William Christie Jur. Andrew Christie Sen., Andrew Christie Jur. Thomas Christie and Peter Christie and of these six only William Christie Jur. survived, the "Twilight " of Downies was swamped 19 miles south-east of Stonehaven two of the crew were saved the other three were drowned, the "Isabella" of the Downies was also lost with six men drowned, the "Alexander Duthie" from Footdee was lost with five fishermen drowned. Another boat from Cove was dashed on the rocks whilst attempting to enter Cove harbour but thankfully the crew was all saved.